


Ilia's Struggles

by Kiiratam



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blake is going to get a lot worse, Canon Compliant, Combat Training, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Ilia is bad at this, Implied/Referenced Abuse, One-Sided Attraction, Practice Kissing, Sienna is a bamf, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:07:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: The new White Fang is in training, getting ready to shock the world with their new policies.But Ilia is currently a little pre-occupied dealing with her tent-mate...Takes place about five years before the Black Trailer. (My BMBLB fic index)
Relationships: Ilia Amitola/Blake Belladonna
Comments: 13
Kudos: 38





	Ilia's Struggles

"Blake, don't forget about the rest of your weapon." High Leader Khan's voice was much warmer than Ilia usually heard. "I can see all the work Adam has put into your swordwork, but it isn't _just_ a sword." She quirked her ears at Blake. "Have you named her yet?"

  
"Um. Not yet, Auntie." Blake shook out the chain trailing from her variable ballistic chain scythe's hilt. "It just... doesn't feel right yet?"

  
High Leader Khan just nodded, like she understood. "It's still fresh from the armory. Take your time, change it into something that's yours, not just another soul-less product of Atlas Academy." She dropped back into a guarded stance. "Ilia, your turn. Use the flexibility, don't get caught up in straight lines. Now attack!"

  
Ilia obliged, lunging forward. Khan kept her chain-whip wrapped around her wrist, defending herself with speed and footwork, trying to force Ilia to a corps-a-corps, where her greater strength would tell.

  
"Good! Attack with your strength, avoid mine." But Ilia was getting forced back, as Khan had freed more of her chain, and started interrupting her lunges with broad sweeping strikes that Ilia was hard-pressed to parry. 

  
From the side, Blake yelled, "Break your pattern, Ilia!"

  
Starting another lunge, Ilia sprang to the side instead, landing in a ground-hugging stance and lashing out with the full-length of her whip against Khan's ankles.

  
The very tip of Lightning Lash made contact, before Khan could spring away.

  
The High Leader took a step back, smiling. "Well done! You won't always have a Belladonna around to tell you what to do, though."

  
Blake's face fell, and Ilia could guess what she was thinking. That her own parents had abandoned the cause, left the good fight for peace and comfort. Not willing to be hurt or hurt for their oh-so-strongly-held beliefs.

  
Looking at the two of them, still sweating and breathing heavily, Khan wrapped her weapon back around her wrist. "Getting tired?"

  
Ilia shook her head, trying to save all her air for breathing. Blake copied her.

  
"If I can tell, the humans can tell. They can practically taste weakness. So scare them! Let me hear your war cries!"

  
The High Leader had asked for it, so Ilia tried her best. Even to her own ears, though, it was a thin and reedy scream. Blake's was even more hesitant, like she couldn't decide whether she was screaming, or trying to yell a motto, or...

  
"Live or die, girls! Do you care which one it is?" Khan let out a chuffing roar, and Ilia dropped into a defensive stance, her back straight, screaming back in defiance, hearing Blake do the same-

  
Laughing, the High Leader reached out and patted both their heads. "Good! Keep working on it!"

  
Out of the corner of her eye, Ilia saw Blake deflate a bit, and felt much the same. They really weren't scary.

  
Khan dropped her hands to their shoulders, squeezing painfully tight. "If those SDC scum hear you now, they'll think the winds of Solitas have come to snatch their breath away." She made eye contact with each of them in turn. "I don't just want them scared of wind witches. I want you to roar, and them to drop dead of fright, because they think dragons are descending on them." With a final squeeze, she pushed them away, freeing the full length of Cerebus from her wrist. "Both of you, work together, watch your distances, don't get tangled up in each other's length. Until my Aura is down, or both of yours are. Attack!"

  
After a glance at Blake, Ilia readied Lightning Lash, and started working around to Khan's flank. Blake had her weapon - still sheathed - held low by her side, the chain wrapped around her arm. She burst forward, drawing her sword in a rush, letting it swing out on the chain-

* * *

  
Groaning, Blake toppled over onto her sleeping bag. "I thought we had her."

  
Ilia tied the tent's flap shut, and slumped into her own sleeping bag. "I think we made her work for it."

  
Blake reached out and patted Ilia's hair. "We did. We're not Golden Sparrow and Iron Nightingale yet, but at least we're better than we were yesterday. I didn't get my stupid chain tangled around your sword today."

  
_I still don't know who all these people are. People from Blake's books? None of which she has here?_ Ilia just smiled and nodded, content to just let Blake play with her hair.

  
But she'd stopped, rolling onto her back and staring at the low ceiling of the tent. "I don't mind the work. I just... wish it was over so we can start doing our job. You know, helping Faunus."

  
"The High Leader said we're going to stay here until she's sure we trained. And the new White Fang is still getting organized. It's going to take a while to-" Ilia stopped before she could repeat some of the things the others had said. 'Purge the taint of the Belladonnas' was the most common phrasing. 

  
But Blake seemed to have heard her anyway, her face twisting. "I _hate_ them! They don't want to do what needs to be done! We were so close, and they're just going to give up? Wallow in Menagerie, and go-" She swallowed, and forced the words out. "Go tame?"

  
Ilia wasn't sure which was worse. Being an orphan because of the SDC, or because of betrayal. The SDC, Ilia was going to pay back. What could Blake do, to get satisfaction? The White Fang wasn't going to turn on their own, misguided and hopelessly naive though they were. She reached out and grabbed Blake's hand tightly. "You're not alone."

  
Squeezing back with an almost frantic strength, Blake rolled back to face her friend. Almost wrapping herself around their clasped hands. "I know. I have Adam, and you, and Aunt - High Leader Khan." Blake flushed red. "I'm sorry. I still don't - I mean, I never called my father-" She buried her face in her pillow.

  
Lifting her other hand, Ilia traced out the edges of Blake's ears. "It's okay. We're all getting used to it." Blake especially. She'd been the daughter of the High Leader. Not the heir apparent, by any means - the White Fang wasn't some human Kingdom - but she'd been closer to the levers of power than Ilia ever had. So it was 'Aunt Sienna.' At least whenever Blake forgot herself.

  
And then there was Adam. Who had brought Blake into the new White Fang, convinced her of the righteousness of their cause - was the reason Blake and Ilia were in the same tent.

  
At first, Ilia had been convinced she hated Blake. She had just felt _warm_ all the time Blake was around, and it had almost been the same fervor she felt when fighting the SDC. Or the feeling that the thought of betrayal of the other Belladonnas roused in her. And Blake had been training with Adam all the time, and she and Ilia were just tent-mates, and didn't really speak. They were both too tired for that, trying to learn lifetimes of knowledge of tactics, and combat, and security, and stealth...

  
But Adam had been sent away on a mission. Ilia didn't know what kind of mission, and it wasn't her place to know. All the White Fang was gathered in this isolated little reach of forest, but they weren't all in one camp. Already, they were trying to compartmentalize, split into cells. High Leader Khan and the various experts were the only ones really moving between camps. 

  
Adam was gone, and High Leader Khan had taken personal charge of his camp. And of his personal trainee. And since the High Leader was an expert with chain weapons, she'd also taken charge of Ilia. Who was better than all of the new fighters in the camp, but didn't have an actual mentor.

  
It had been three weeks, and Ilia was quite convinced that she didn't hate Blake, Belladonna or no. Blake had spent too much time in books and not the real world, but-

  
She was so determined. To make up for her parents' failings, to get real justice for the Faunus, to be useful. It make Ilia push herself, to try to keep up. Being next to Blake was just... wonderful. 

  
And her hair was so shimmery and beautiful. Ilia ran her hand through it, and Blake finally raised her head from her pillow, looking at her with big eyes, tears on the verge of spilling out. "I miss Adam."

  
_Adam, Adam, ADAM._ Ilia tried not to sigh. "I'm sure he's safe. No human's going to beat him." Even in her worst moments, Ilia knew that Adam was an excellent fighter. Especially with his Semblance; it made him nearly invincible. And the harder the fight, the more decisively he could end it. But-

  
"I know." Blake grabbed one of the little curls by her lower ears and started nervously trying to straighten it. "I just... nothing feels right without him here. It's like my weapon, except I _know_ what's wrong. I just can't fix it."

  
Ilia seized on the non-Adam part of that conversation, hoping to distract her friend. "Do you want to talk about your weapon?"

  
Sighing, Blake said, "That's just frustrating. The weight's wrong, or the balance, or - I don't know."

  
"We could talk to Sister Buda after lessons tomorrow. I'm sure she'll have plenty of ideas to try." Even if she did have that creepy eye and weird laugh. She knew her weapons-craft.

  
Blake squeezed Ilia's hand. "Thanks. You're so smart. I just... get lost, or don't see the important stuff."

  
"Hey, don't say that. You're here. That's the smartest thing you could have done." _I'm here, too. Please see me._

  
Nodding, Blake wrapped her other hand around Ilia's. "I miss him. He's the whole reason I'm here, and now he's gone and what if he doesn't come back?" She choked back a sob.

  
"He will."

  
Her eyes closed, Blake pressed her cheek against their clasped hands. Stayed like that for a long moment that had to be briefer in reality, but Ilia's heart was pounding, and her stomach was doing cartwheels, and breathing seemed to take an _eternity_...

  
"I know. I know he will." Blake seemed like she was trying to force her words into reality. "He just - before he left, Adam said - we needed to talk. About something special. And some nights, I can't even sleep, because I'm so excited, waiting, wondering what he's going to say." She took a deep breath. "What if he tells me he loves me? Or wants to have our first kiss? What do I even do?!"

  
And the world was shaking inside of Ilia's eyes, and nothing was _right_ , and she felt Blake slipping away from her, and she'd never come back, because Adam was such a good fighter, and already a hero, and Ilia had just gotten lucky once or twice, and Blake was going to be with Adam and never look back at her -

  
Ilia forced the words out, over the knot in her throat. "...kiss me..."

  
Blake looked at her, with wide eyes - and Ilia knew she'd made a mistake, and Blake was going to hate her, and they wouldn't even be tent mates anymore, and -

  
And Blake's face broke into a shining smile. "For practice! Yes! That's a great idea!" She sat up, pulling Ilia up and towards her. Kept talking, something about another one of her books, and Ilia wanted to correct her, to tell Blake that she wanted to kiss Blake for _Blake_ , not for Adam, but she was so close, and she couldn't bear to pull back away -

  
Ilia leaned forward and kissed Blake's lips. Softly, gently, over Blake's little squeak of surprise. Pulled back, barely able to raise her eyes to Blake's, knowing she was literally turning red all over...

  
"Adam says I can talk too much." Blake squeezed Ilia's hand. "Sorry I'm such a pain." She bit her lip, looking at Ilia with concern. "Thanks for helping. You don't have to force yourself. It's a really good idea, but I'm sure I can ask Aunt- High Leader Khan for advice."

  
Her face hot, Ilia leaned forward again, "Shut up." Stopping herself a breath away from Blake's lips.

  
Blake closed the distance, kissing her sweetly and lightly, like a butterfly winging across her mouth.

  
They kept pressing kisses on each other, taking turns giving and receiving. Ilia lost track of where they were, hungry for more of Blake's taste, and they both leaned in at the same time, Ilia's mouth open, about to catch Blake's lip between her teeth - 

  
Their teeth grated past each other, and they both leaned back, hands to their mouths.

  
"Sorry." Blake's eyes were golden lights above her mouth, and she was still so beautiful, even with the awkward. "I think we both tried to do open-mouthed kisses at the same time."

  
Ilia nodded, setting her hands on Blake's hips, about to draw her closer again, and not able to talk at all because Blake was _right here_ , and one interruption, one mistake, wasn't going to stop her-

  
Blake's scroll chimed.

  
And she slipped out of Ilia's arms, and grabbed her scroll, unrolling it, and her eyes were still shining, but she wasn't even looking at Ilia anymore, which meant-

  
"He's back!" Blake grabbed her pillow and hugged it tightly to her chest, rereading the message as she did. "Well, he's safe. He's outside camp. He just needs to speak with - the High Leader. Then he'll be at liberty."

  
With Blake over on her side of the tent again, Ilia could finally speak again. Even if she did have to take a few deep breaths first. "Isn't that against protocol? You're supposed get debriefed before you say anything to anyone."

  
And now Blake wasn't even going to look at her, just keep staring at that stupid message. With an expression on her face that would have been beatific directed at her, but almost looked sappy from this direction. "Well, technically, yes, but just because it's protocol doesn't mean you can't bend it some times. I mean, we have something special together. What do rules have to do with that?"

  
"The rules are there to keep all of us safe. It's not like the Kingdom laws, where there's one law for the humans and another for the Faunus. That's what we're fighting _against_." Too late to stop her words, which had come out maybe a bit harsher than Ilia had really been intending, but it was _true_ , and besides, now Blake was actually looking at her -

  
With a hurt expression. "It's not the same at all! There's no one else around for kilometers, and it's been three weeks, and he just let me know he was safe, he didn't tell me anything that could be used by anyone even if they're intercepted it!"

  
"But he did!" Ilia wanted to stop, to apologize, but Blake was _wrong_ , and this _could_ hurt the White Fang. "He told you he was going to see the High Leader, and if they intercepted it, they'd also have a location fix on him, so they'd know what camp _she_ was in-"

  
"There's. No. One. Here! We're _safe_ , probably for the last time ever, and you're yelling at me for being glad Adam's back!" Blake nearly ripped the tent flap open, and stormed out.

  
And Ilia didn't have a thing to call after her. No apologies, no explanations, no last barb of her own. Nothing. 

  
She just sat back onto her sleeping bag, reaching out to grab Blake's pillow and- 

  
_No. No, that's not right._

  
Ilia grabbed her own pillow and hugged it to her chest, trying not to cry into it. Trying to hold onto the precious memories of a few minutes before. The memories that would stay memories, because Ilia clearly didn't have the smarts or the patience to try to win Blake, just dumb luck. And her luck wouldn't help her with Blake anymore.

  
Blake hated her.

  
Feeling her colors shift, Ilia tried to cry quietly.


End file.
